Every time I "Reset this PC" in Windows 10 I have to install everything all over again

Community Community & Industry Discussion
1

My Windows 10 operating system is installed in the C drive and Epic Game Launcher and all games and Unreal Engine 4.26 are installed in the D drive.

Recently some malwares invaded and attacked my computer and caused some damage to my computer.
I had to use the “Reset this PC” feature of Windows 10 to undo the bad changes that the malicious programs did and repair my computer and bring my computer back to work.

But after “Reset this PC” I have to run the setup of Epic Game Launcher and install Epic Game Launcher again and then the Epic Game Launcher tells me that I have to install everything all over again including all games and Unreal Engine 4.26.

But this is ridiculous because I have all games and Unreal Engine 4.26 already installed in the D drive.
The “Reset this PC” feature of Windows 10 modifies only the drive that Windows 10 is installed on that is the C drive in my case, so the D drive remains unchanged and since all games and Unreal Engine 4.26 are installed on the D drive and not in the C drive and Windows 10 is not installed on the D drive, so I still have all my games and Unreal Engine 4.26 installed after “Reset this PC”.

I should tell Epic Games Launcher that I already have everything installed and I don’t have to install anything all over again but the interface of Epic Games Launcher doesn’t give me the option to do so and I am very upset.

I did Google search to find some solutions to this particular problem but everyone tell me that I have to temporarily either move to different place or rename the folder of the game that I want to play, then start downloading the game that I want to play and a few seconds later cancel the download, delete the folder that the Epic Games Launcher created, either bring back the folder that I moved or rename the folder back to the name it was and then let Epic Games Launcher to start over the download and install of the game.

They say that Epic Games Launcher will verify all files and then let me play the game without having download and install it all over again.

I did what they told me to do but this is no longer working.

Epic Games Launcher does the verifying and then it starts downloading and installing the game all over again.

I am very upset.

WHY I CAN’T TELL EPIC GAMES LAUNCHER THAT THE GAME IS ALREADY INSTALLED AND JUST LET ME PLAY THE GAME ALREADY?

All search results tell me to use the same workaround that is no longer working!

Even when I tell Epic Game Launcher to install everything on the D drive, Epic Game Launcher still creates something in the C drive where Windows 10 is installed.

That something that Epic Game Launcher creates in the C drive where Windows 10 is installed is probably where Epic Game Launcher remembers what is installed and what is not installed.

I know this because every time I “Reset this PC” Epic Game Launcher forgets everything and “Reset this PC” modifies the C drive where Windows 10 is installed ONLY.

That something can be either a set of folders and files or a set of keys and values in the registry or both.

If that so then why not simply tell me how to use File Explorer, Notepad and Registry Editor of Windows 10 to tell Epic Game Launcher that I have everything installed and I don’t have to install anything all over again?

And in the future PLEASE update Epic Game Launcher and ADD to the INTERFACE the OPTION to SELECT the FOLDER of the installed game ALREADY so users like me don’t have to install anything all over again and users don’t have to use any hacks and cheats anymore!

2

I would agree with you that this would be good. It seems like that is something that would a ‘nice to have’ feature so is it worth putting a polite request for this in the feature request section.

On the malware side, if the malware didn’t know about the malware well enough to stop it, I’d be more inclined to want as much of a fresh start as possible and also replace my AV.

3

Even when you install stuff to a separate drive, there’s stuff that will need to be added within some other folders and registry items that need to be done for the software to work. They could go through and add a feature to “find previous installation” but at least for the launcher itself you should just go ahead and reinstall.

4

Downloading and installing any game from the store is a huge pain, because the process lasts a lot of time.
All games are at least 10 GBs in size and I have to wait an entire day (many hours) to download and install a single game only!

Downloading and installing all games simultaneously is not faster than downloading and installing all games one after another at all.

Also if I download and install all games all over again then I must manually with the use of Windows File Explorer to permanently delete all installed games before the “Reset this PC” action to save a lot of disk space in my D drive and deleting all these games also take a lot of time!
Well about an hour but still takes a lot of time in addition to the time spent for downloading and installing all games again!

And I don’t want to have to do this all over again the next time I have to “Reset this PC” again!

Isn’t it possible to just modify the registry and the C drive in such a way so Epic Game Launcher knows that all the games are already installed and it just let me play them all?

I am sure that this is possible! Please don’t tell me otherwise!

5

This is cleary ridicolous : Can the Epic Games Launcher detect previously installed games? - Epic Games Support

They suggest to copy/paste/rename of things just to fool the launcher/installer, why dont do something automatic instead?! come on guys in 2022 this is not rocket science ( or even steampower science ^_^) How am I suppose to do this for hundreds of games? In a month of work?

6

Not sure if this works with unreal launcher (that app looks/works like it was done by bethesda not epic).
But you may try symbolic links in windows 10.
Create/move unreal stuff to another drive then create symlink from default unreal C: drive folder to that new moved place.
This should work.

Also i do agree that epic launcher is terrible.